Don't Stand So Close To Me
by A-iroha
Summary: After Kuroko leaves with Kagami, Akashi diverts all his attention to Kise. When Kise breaks, Aomine is there to pick up the broken pieces. He has always been. AoKise.


**Rating: **T**  
****Warning: **This fanfiction contains character death and Male/Male relationships!

* * *

**Don't Stand So Close To Me  
**黒子のバスケ © 藤巻 忠俊  
_Aomine thinks he always repeats his mistakes. He is always running away._

It is a little after two in the morning when they board the last train departing from Shinjuku, Tokyo. Aomine is barely able to pass the train attendant enough money for two tickets before collapsing onto the seat, panting and cursing. Kise, on the other hand, stands stiffly at the entrance of their carriage, staring at the empty seat with a deadpan expression.

Aomine rolls his eyes and scoots over, patting the space beside him. "Sit."

The blond complies with the order willingly, moving towards the green seat without hesitation. It is then that Aomine realizes Kise is still dressed in the thin white shirt and Bermudas he grabbed during their escape from the research faculty.

He shrugs off his fur-trimmed coat and wraps it around the other. "Keep warm and sleep, Ryouta. I'll keep watch."

Kise glances at the coat around him in confusion, then back up at Aomine. His eyes and ears are record every movement, every word, down to their miniscule details; yet his brain is unable to process the two as a whole. It's confusing to the extent that it's _unnerving_. Kise pulls the coat from his shoulders and hands it back to Aomine.

"I can't sleep, Daiki. And I don't get cold either."

An embarrassed Aomine turns to close the curtains, blocking out the streetlights and casting the cabin into a comfortable darkness. "Just wear it, idiot."

Again, Kise complies, placing the coat back around his shoulders. The material is soft against his skin and probably warm. He glances to his left, noting Aomine's subtle drop in body temperature, but does nothing because he is supposed to wear the coat.

The blue-haired man sighs, propping his chin up with one hand as he observes Kise through his peripheral vision. The blond doesn't move, he doesn't speak. He isn't like the ball of overly-enthusiastic energy Aomine remembers him as.

'Midorima fails as a scientist - Ryouta is nothing like Kise', he decides, then wonder what is wrong with himself as he instructs the other to call him Aominecchi instead of Daiki.

The blond's tone is monotonous, lacking the admiration once clearly reflected in Kise's. Yet Aomine can't stop his heart from wrenching when he hears that voice calling out that same annoying nickname - together with that face.

Aomine cries.

"Aominecchi. _Aominecchi."_

Kise stops repeating the unfamiliar name after his third try and settles for pressing his nose into the crook of Aomine's neck because something tells him Daiki - his master - is sad and that is the best way to comfort him.

"Aominecchi, don't cry."

Kise doesn't move until they reach the station in Akita. His eyes watch every moment his master cries and replays the scene in his head as the latter falls asleep against his shoulder. He doesn't understand why Daiki cries.

* * *

"_A robot?" Midorima scoffed, crossing his arms across his chest. His pristine white lab coat fanned out below him, no visible creases in sight. "Aomine, you don't understand how difficult it is to create something that complicated."_

_Aomine pursed his lips, returning the green-haired man's sharp glare with a glower. "I do. That's exactly why I'm entrusting you with this, Midorima."_

_"I'm not going to recreate a Kise for you because you want a chance to apologise."_

* * *

Aomine wakes only when the train pulls into the station in Akita prefecture. Everything in Akita screams 'Murasakibara' at him and Aomine isn't very keen on stopping in this area. He knows that the latter is currently engaged in a business conference with Akashi in Ikebukuro but there's still something unsettling here. For starters, there's too many people at the station at five in the morning.

He tightens his grip around Kise's hand.

"Aominecchi?"

"Just shut up and follow me."

**Aomine doesn't let go. In fact, he merely pulls the hood of his jacket over Kise's head as they continue on their way out of the train station. They start with a walk that breaks into a jog by the time they reach the stairs.**

Kise notices the increase in the number of people in black suits following them around, but doesn't mention anything because his system reminds him that his job is to shut up and follow.

"This way, Ryouta," Aomine pulls them into an alleyway, watching as the men chasing them rush past. For once, he's glad that he has tanned skin.

Aomine counts to twenty after the last man makes his way by, then helps Kise to his feet and retraces the route back to the station.

They stop at the convenience store a block away from the station. Aomine buys three bento boxes and spends a minute contemplating purchasing hair dye before placing it back onto the shelf. He knows they gain too much attention, but he doesn't want to rectify the problem by dyeing Kise's hair black - he can't bring himself to do it because Kise wouldn't be Kise without blond hair.

The Kise he knows is an optimistic bastard; the Ryota beside him is an emotionless doll. But Aomine finds himself with a sense of nostalgia as he hurries down the streets, one hand holding food and the other clasped in Kise's own.

"Ryouta, I've heard from Midorima that you can remember everything you see and hear, right?" Aomine questions, but doesn't wait for Kise to answer. "I want you engrave every detail of this town into your microchip. Kise has always wanted to go to Akita. He once said that it was the only prefecture he hasn't visited since he became a model."

Kise nodded. It's strange to him how Aomine speaks as if Kise and Ryouta are two different people but he doesn't necessarily mind.

"One more thing, Ryouta," Aomine says as he turns around and bends so their foreheads were touching. "Remember this forever. I love Kise, and I love you too, Ryouta. And no matter what, I promise to protect you this time round."

The hand Aomine presses against his chest in the next moment feels as if it burns. And Kise doesn't understand.

He doesn't understand why it hurts.

* * *

"_As expected of Shintarou. This is a perfect copy of Ryouta," Akashi smirked as he slipped a finger under Kise's chin and inclined the blond's head towards himself for closer inspection. "All I wish for is that Ryouta here has the same abilities as he did previously so I can train his talent again."_

_Midorima pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Not really, Akashi. I do admit that there are many shortcomings to this project. Firstly, it's emotionless. And secondly, it can't act totally like Kise because it doesn't have the total memory input. After all of our efforts as well as the Kaijou team's, his microchip perfection is only at 72 percent I'm afraid there's no way to ever make it into 100 without the real Kise."_

_They were at a gathering in Midorima's office, gazing down at the blond robot which was lying on top of an operation table. Momoi wasn't invited; Murasakibara was staring at it as if it was a delicious dish, and Aomine leaned stiffly against the entrance. He doesn't feel like moving closer, not when he was sure one look at the robot would make his entire world come crashing down once again._

"_An emotionless doll... Isn't it better this way, Shintarou? After all, Ryouta does not need to remember everything he went through - not the physical torture, not the fear of losing his sight forever, or the hurt when he was betrayed. Right, Daiki?"_

_Aomine's fingers curled into fists at his sides as he resisted the urge to punch Akashi. It had been eight months since Kise passed on, and although Aomine seemed to have gotten over the news, he was livid with Akashi treating Kise like someone, or rather, something replaceable._

_Kise wasn't replaceable. He was-_

_"Aomine... Aominecchi...?"_

_That was the voice that made Aomine snap. Before he even contemplated what he was going to do, Aomine grabbed Kise's hand and dragged him out of the room, down the long hallways and out of the research facility._

* * *

"Ryouta, no matter what anyone tells you, never _ever _leave my side."

Aomine wakes up in the cheap motel room they rented for the night. Kise is on the chair next the the bed, eyes unblinking as he stares at Aomine. The latter sits up on the bed, yawning, and says the very first thing that comes to his mind. The blond nods slowly, storing the words into his microchip because he deems them important.

"Where's the next destination?" Aomine grumbles as he fishes in his pockets for cash to buy the train tickets to their next destination. He pulls out some notes and several coins, barely enough to cover two more trips. They have already visited quite a few prefectures - from areas which they once went together to places which Kise always wanted to go.

'If you can't recall, then make new memories'. This statement by Kuroko when Aomine contacts him previously is what makes him unable to shake off the idea that it's possible for Kise to get the remaining 28% by learning about new things.

Aomine thinks it's strange that he still approaches Tetsu for advice when the man is the source of all his troubles. Or perhaps, the source is Kagami. If that guy didn't bring Tetsu away to America, Akashi would still be infatuated with Tetsu and wouldn't have turned his attention to Kise.

_Kise will still be- _Aomine refuses to continue the train of thought.

"Yokohama, Aominecchi."

"Huh?"

"Our next destination, Yokohama."

"Oh," Aomine replies, a little flustered when he recalls what he was thinking before Kise spoke. He misses the small smile upon Kise's lips when he averts his gaze to hide his embarrassment.

It is two full days later when Aomine realises how similar Ryouta is to Kise.

* * *

"_Aominecchi?" Kise lifted the pitch of the end syllable so it sounded more like a question than a statement. "Are you here? To visit me?"_

_The tanned teenager slipped into the ward, and crossed the room to stand by Kise's bedside. It had been two days since he last visited, but Kise's condition didn't seem to be improving. In fact, the blond's lean figure propped up by the pillows under him made him seem just more vulnerable. _

_He appeared thinner and the smile seemed forced. The bandages around the blond's eyes seemed to be more of a restraint rather than a treatment method._

"_Yeah. I brought flowers."_

_Kise reached out to cradle the bouquet of flowers. His fingers brushed the petals of the flowers and he frowned, concentrating to determine what flowers they were. "Sunflowers?"_

"_They suit you."_

_"I'm not that strong."_

_Aomine bites back his urge to debate against Kise. The blond was always stubborn at the wrong time. He pressed a hand onto Kise's head, ruffling the blond locks._

_"Idiot, that's why I'll protect you."_

* * *

**Author's Note: **I'm sorry if it's confusing when I switch between 'Kise' and 'Ryouta'. In here, 'Kise' may mean both the (dead) human Kise and the robot, but 'Ryouta' only refers to the robot. A brief summary would be that Kuroko leaves Japan with Kagami, and Akashi is furious. So, he turns his attention to Kise – the second person he found talent in, and started training (plus abusing) Kise. Eight months after Kise the human died, Aomine asks Midorima to construct a Kise robot. Being the Tsundere he is, Midorima still builds it despite rejecting Aomine's request. Aomine and Kise the robot escapes from the laboratory and from Akashi who is making plans to capture them. Slowly, Kise the robot becomes more and more human-like.

_Thank you for reading and please review C:_


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